A meta‐analysis of the interrelationships between employee lateness, absenteeism, and turnover: Implications for models of withdrawal behavior (original) (raw)
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Absenteeism and Turnover: Is There a Progression? [1]
Journal of Management Studies, 1982
Three patterns of relationships between employee absenteeism and turnover have been suggested in the past-that withdrawal progresses from absenteeism to turnover, that absenteeism and turnover are alternatives to each other, and that absenteeism and turnover are unrelated. This paper examines the proposition that there is a rising trend of absences for leavers as the point of their turnover approaches, using data from employees of two midwestern U.S. organizations, a bank and a manufacturing company. A paired subjects design is used for analysis of the progression notion. The results affirm the existence of a positive association between absenteeism and turnover but provide, at best, weak confirmation of the progression hypothesis. The results from the two organizations are also different from each other. Measurement, sample, analysis, and theory problems are discussed as potential explanations of the differential results.
A meta-analytic review of the relationship between absence and turnover
Journal of Applied Psychology, 1992
A meta-analysis that combined 33 correlations from 17 studies found a corrected average correlation of .330 between absence and turnover. The type of absence measure did not moderate the covariation between absence and turnover, but industry type and study duration did act as moderators. The results are discussed in the context of the "withdrawal" approach to understanding employee behaviors.
Relationships Between Absenteeism and Turnover: A Function of the Measures?
Personnel Psychology, 1985
Several investigations have examined the relationship between absenteeism and turnover. These behaviors have been variously found to be correlated positively, negatively, or not at all. The present investigation studied this relationship using multiple measures of both absenteeism and turnover. The findings showed that different types of relationships were present depending on the measures used. A search for invariant relationships, using mutually exclusive models, does not seem useful. The absenteeism-turnover relationship appears to be a variable process over time, people, situations, and measures.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1998
A combination of objective and subjective variables was used to test a version of the withdrawal progression model. The sample consisted of 200 public sector employees for whom objective lateness and absence data were available for two time periods. Data were analyzed via the CALIS procedure for analyzing structural models. The best fitting model for predicting satisfaction and intention to leave was attained when lateness and absence in two consecutive years were used as predictors. Competing models that included demographic and environmental factors showed poorer fit. The findings support Bem's self-perception model ( ) or Clegg's proposition (1983 that lateness and absenteeism reduce satisfaction through their effect upon tangible or social sanctions. ᭧
An investigation of the process of employee withdrawal
Journal of Business and Psychology, 1987
This paper investigated the theory that withdrawal of employees from organizations represents a gradual process. All hourly non-exempt employees of a manufacturing organization who separated in one calendar year (N = 309) were considered. Excused and unexcused absence measures, and excused and unexcused tardiness measures, were collected for seven weeks prior to separation. Patterns of four withdrawal measures were then considered for both voluntary resignations and involuntary terminations, and significant changes over time were found. In addition, polynomial functions were tested, and cubic trends were found to describe profiles of unexcused absences. However, in a practical sense the best description of the process is a sudden upsurge in absenteeism immediately prior to separation.
Employee absenteeism: A review of the literature
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1977
EMPLOYEE ABSENTEEISM 317 previous reviews, but to probe into the particular problems and issues associated with the broad topic of absenteeism. state that absenteeism (and turnover) are "clear-cut acts"; one purpose of this paper is to rebut that contention, at least insofar as the measurement (and thus the meaning) of absenteeism is by no means "clear-cut". This review will show (in part) that "absenteeism" is a particularly ambiguous concept, and this ambiguity has clouded the exact meaning of many studies that investigated the relationship between absenteeism and other variables. The paper will review studies that examined the degree of association between absenteeism and three broad classes of variables: personal, attitudinal, and organizational variables. It is hypothesized that many of the conflicting and contradictory findings reported about absenteeism are in part attributable to the ill-defined concept of absenteeism. In addition, this paper will review the findings of studies that relate the two forms of withdrawal behavior (absenteeism and turnover) to each other. Finally, the paper will review an area of absenteeism research that only recently has involved a high degree of experimental rigor, that of programmatic attempts to reduce employee absenteeism. The review will conclude with suggestions for absenteeism research that have significance for both the theory and practice of vocational behavior.
Employee turnover and absenteeism: A future research agenda
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Time for absenteeism: A 20-year review of origins, offshoots, and outcomes
Journal of Management, 1998
We use a time-based system to help organize, summarize, and analyze research on employee absenteeism published in the last 20 years (1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996). Although what is known about some mid-term (4-12 month) origins of absence-taking has been greatly clarified and expanded, less is known about long-term (> 12 months) and short-term (I day -3 months) origins, or about how causes in different time frames relate to each other. Poor performance and "neglectful" behaviors serve as reliable offshoots of absenteeism. The long-and short-term etiology of the latter behaviors is unclear, but their shared variance in the mid-term reflects negative job attitudes. Outcomes of absenteeism have received much less research attention. Although mid-term consequences such as reduced performance, turnover, and organizational expense are well-established, little is known about short-and long-term effects of absence-taking on individuals and their social environments. We conclude with suggestions for more explicit consideration of time frames, causal lags, and aggregation periods in the next decades of absenteeism research.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1999
Previous research has established a positive relationship between absenteeism and voluntary turnover and a negative relationship between performance and turnover. An examination of the turnover literature, however, reveals virtually no consideration of a possible interaction between these two predictors of turnover. In order to test for such an interaction, company record data were collected from a sample of nonexempt classification employees within a large regional life insurance company. Records revealed that 113 of the company's 816 employees had voluntarily left the firm over a 2-year period. Company data on these "leavers" were compared with data on a random sample of 113 employees who stayed. Logistic regression, as opposed to ordinary least-squares regression, was used to determine the effects of prior absenteeism and performance ratings on voluntary turnover, over and above the effects of demographic factors. Results supported known relationships between absenteeism (as measured by sick leave usage), performance ratings, and voluntary turnover, but did not reveal a significant interaction effect, even over multiple time frames. Results are discussed in terms of the potential uses of company record data for early detection of voluntary turnover.